Dish Network Corp. released a feature on its digital video recorder Thursday that automatically removes commercials from shows aired by major broadcast networks, threatening to seriously undercut billions of dollars in broadcast television advertising. The feature, dubbed “Auto Hop,” is an advance on existing ad-skipping features on digital video recorders, which have been widely available for several years from cable and satellite operators. For existing DVRs, consumers have to manually press a fast forward button to speed through the commercial breaks. Timing the fast forward can be difficult and viewers can still see scenes from ads. Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Read MoreFor Facebook Inc., the No. 1 challenge is making money from mobile devices. And it's warning investors that so far its ad business is not keeping up with the shift to mobile devices, a crucial point as Facebook heads into the last stretch before its initial public stock offering. The Menlo Park, Calif., company's executives have been fielding questions about its mobile advertising strategy during the roadshow this week. Facebook flagged the potential slowdown in advertising growth in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. More people are accessing Facebook from mobile devices, on which Facebook is showing them fewer ads.
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Not everyone believed that the Febreze commercials featuring blindfolded people sitting in dirty -- but Febrezed -- rooms were completely real. To persuade the doubters, Grey New York pulled off a stunt in New York City ("home of the biggest skeptics in the world," according to the agency). It outfitted an old shipping container once used for seafood with Febreze freshener plug-ins and put it in the middle of the meatpacking district. People in the vicinity were blindfolded and led inside, then asked: "Where do you think you are?" Link: Grey Brings Febreze Experiment to Life in New York
Paywall sites are having a bad month. Google shuttered One Pass at the end of April. Now paywall and news aggregation site Ongo, which launched in January 2011 with $12 million in funding from the New York Times, Washington Post and Gannett, is closing, Nieman Journalism Lab reports. Ongo was founded by former eBay and PayPal exec Alex Kazim and aimed to aggregate news while charging for some content from big newspapers. NYTco’s Martin Nisenholtz described Ongo as a “Hulu of news.” But as Nieman explains, the pricing scheme was confusing: A basic Ongo subscription gave you access to content from The Washington Post
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Ever wonder what the Incredible Hulk smells like? Try Indian sandalwood, musk and sharp cedar. "It's more of an earthy fragrance," said Andrew Levine, CEO of Jads International, the Maryland-based marketer that signed on to produce a line of "Avengers" scents, including Smash, a cologne based on the green superhero. "You have to mimic the character." Dozens of companies are tying in with "Marvel's The Avengers," the Walt Disney Co. action film opening today in the U.S. With its Captain America character dating back to World War II, "The Avengers" has an unusually broad appeal, attracting licensing and sponsorship deals that go well
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Next week festival-goers will have an opportunity to experience New York City's digital culture and thriving tech scene at Internet Week. The festival will showcase interactive art installations, host classes conducted by top technologists and artists, nightly parties and concerts, and hundreds of panels and keynotes featuring the industry’s leading thinkers. It will bring more than 45,000 people from around the world to nearly 250 events at the festival’s new 50,000 square foot, two-story Soho headquarters at 82 Mercerand dozens of locations throughout the city. Highlights include: Keynotes by David Carr and Brian Stelter of The New York Times, VICE Founder Shane Smith, and legendary music
Read MoreBerkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, who owns the Buffalo News, the Omaha World-Herald and a big chunk of the Washington Post, told shareholders today that he may buy more newspapers . “I think there is a future for newspapers that exist in an area where there is a sense of community,” he said. “I think the economics will be ok, but it will be nothing like the old days.”
Read MoreNewspapers are supposed to be relying on the Web for new revenue streams. But the digital ad business may be letting them down. The Washington Post reported this morning that its online ad revenue dropped 7 percent in the first three months of 2012. That follows a New York Times earnings release which saw that publisher’s Web ad business drop 2 percent. (We should get some color on the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, when parent company News Corp. reports its earnings next week; News Corp. also owns this Web site.) The Times said that digital sales were “under pressure” in the first quarter of the year, while the Post didn’t bother to add any color to its results. But it did note that online display ads were down 11 percent, while classifieds were down 1 percent. Unlike the Times, the Post is essentially a regional newspaper, so it is harder to argue that its travails reflect a larger trend. And it’s also worth noting that the Post faces fierce competition for its core political coverage from Politico, an online/offline competitor that basically sprouted overnight. But for the record: The rest of the Web publishing business — including not only Google but laggards like Yahoo — has been posting Q1 revenue increases. [An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that AOL's ad revenues were up for Q1; the company won't post its numbers until next week.]
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YouTube wraps nearly two weeks of online video upfronts with a presentation to advertisers Wednesday night, and after at least $100 million invested in new content, they've got quite a bit riding on it. In hopes of generating sizzle, YouTube announced two new channel partners that will receive funding, as well as a host of new shows and channels from existing partners and celebrities. The new channels join the nearly 100 that YouTube has funded and announced over the past six months: WIGS: Launched by filmmakers Jon Avnet ("Black Swan, "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Risky Business") and Rodrigo Garcia ("Albert Nobbs," "In Treatment,"
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